Grand jury recommends charges in 2009 Easton Cafe killing

A state inmate from Easton escapes from his Centre County prison to return to the woman he'd married as his drug case unfolded.

But authorities now believe that Franklin J. Barndt had another reason altogether for wanting to get back to Easton more than two years ago.

If love drove Barndt's flight, so did fear, according to findings by a Northampton County grand jury. Fear that the walls were closing in on him in an investigation into the 2009 murder of a man who was gunned down in a downtown bar.

In a presentment unsealed Friday by a county judge, the grand jury recommended that Barndt, 36, be charged with conspiracy to commit homicide in the March 30, 2009, shooting at the Easton Cafe, a shot-and-a-beer joint on Northampton Street.

The grand jury also identified the man whom authorities believe killed 24-year-old Miguel L. Aponte Jr. that night, naming the suspected gunman as Jacob Holmes Jr. of Easton — who had been wounded in a gun battle involving Aponte three years earlier.

First Deputy District Attorney Terence Houck said prosecutors lack enough evidence to charge Holmes in Aponte's killing, but he noted that no statute of limitations exists for homicide. But Houck said the case against Barndt is ready to proceed.

"We've got one in the bag and we're confident that through continued work, we will get the second one," Houck said. "Franklin Barndt is arrested because he is the one we have the evidence on at this time."

According to the grand jury's presentment, Barndt testified before the panel last year that he witnessed Holmes walk into the bar and fire at Aponte. Beforehand, Barndt said he had told Holmes over the phone that Aponte was there; afterward, Barndt took the gun from Holmes and later threw it in the Delaware River, the grand jury found.

In an interview Friday, Holmes' father, Jacob Holmes Sr. of Easton, denied that his son was involved in the killing, saying he is being blamed by Barndt to shift focus from him.

"If Jakey shot him, why didn't Jakey then throw the gun away?" said Jacob Holmes Sr., who is a brother of former heavyweight boxing champion Larry Holmes. "If Jakey did the shooting, why didn't he have the gun?"

Jacob Holmes Sr. called his 33-year-old son a stay-at-home father of three children.

"He had nothing to do with it. He was home," Jacob Holmes Sr. said. "He stays in the house all the time. He takes care of his kids."

A man answering the phone at the family's South Side house declined to comment "until we talk to a lawyer."

When Aponte was gunned down, he had recently been released from Northampton County Prison, where he served time for his role in a 2006 shooting death outside a Wilson strip clubJacob Holmes Jr. was wounded by two stray bullets in that incident.

Aponte was initially charged with homicide in that case, but he later pleaded guilty to lesser charges that included illegal possession of a firearm, receiving 21/2 to five years in jail.

Houck said the evidence points to Aponte's killing as retaliation for the other shooting, which claimed the life of 23-year-old Jason Oliver of Easton.

"Everything seems to have started from that shooting," Houck said. "It is our contention that they are all linked."

According to allegations by the grand jury:

Aponte was shot multiple times by a masked gunman who came through the rear door of the Easton Cafe and immediately began firing.

A witness, Daniel Johnson, said he had seen Barndt on his cellphone beforehand, talking "very quietly" and "staring unflinchingly at Aponte." Barndt, who looked agitated, left less than a minute after arriving at the bar, without ever sitting down or buying anything.

About five minutes later, the shooting occurred.

In his testimony, Barndt said Holmes had called him and asked him who was at the bar. Hearing that Aponte was there, Holmes said he was going to "kill that [expletive]"and told Barndt to look and see who was around.

Barndt testified that he met Holmes in the parking lot, where Holmes repeated that he was going to "kill that [expletive]." Barndt claimed he watched Holmes walk up to the back door of the bar, pull an automatic gun out of his waistband and shoot in Aponte's direction after the door was opened.

Raquel Meyer, a girlfriend of Barndt's at the time, testified she picked up Barndt and a "Jake" from a tavern that night. She said the two men were yelling back and forth that "they were family, that they could trust one another, that they would take this to the grave, and that 'payback is a bitch.'"

Meyer said days later, she was with Barndt when he threw an automatic gun into the Delaware River.

"This was the gun that killed that [expletive], so shut… up and mind your business, this is family," Barndt allegedly told her when she asked why he had tossed it.

Meyer also claimed that Barndt boasted to family members about the homicide, beating his chest when a newspaper article about it came out and saying, "I did that, I had that." He also asked her to serve as his alibi should she ever be questioned by police, the grand jury found.

Barndt has been in the news before, and for far more trivial reasons.

In August 2010, he married his fiancee, Takesha Piazza, in an ad hoc ceremony conducted by a Northampton County judge who was presiding over a cocaine delivery case involving him. A month later, Barndt pleaded guilty and received a three- to six-year sentence.

Barndt was serving that time at a forest camp at State Correctional Institution-Rockview when he escaped in September 2011. He was soon arrested in Wilson as he was spotted getting into a car driven by his wife, police said.

"The power of love, it has an amazing pull," said Barndt's defense attorney at the time, Gary Asteak. Asteak said Friday he was unaware of the grand jury's investigation and does not represent Barndt in the new case.

The grand jury said recordings of phone calls Barndt placed from prison just before he escaped revealed that he was aware a probe was being conducted into Aponte's killing. After he fled, Barndt "immediately" called a nephew to ask about the whereabouts of Meyer, the ex-girlfriend, the grand jury said.

When a friend later asked Barndt why he had escaped from prison, he said "he wanted to spend some time with his new wife before he had to spend the rest of his life in prison," the grand jury's report said.

"The investigation into the shooting was the reason for him getting out, no doubt about it," Houck said.

After pleading guilty in his escape case, Barndt received an additional one to two years in state prison, court records show. He is now held at the State Correctional Institution-Huntingdon.

Barndt had yet to be arraigned Friday on the conspiracy charge. The proceeding isn't expected to be scheduled until next week, according to the downtown district judge's office in Easton where it would be held.